Qualcomm maintains lead in smartphone SoC market

Qualcomm is still the daddy in the smartphone processor market. According to Strategy Analytics, Qualcomm has a 43 percent revenue share in the market and it saw its shipments grow 60 percent last year, hitting $12.9 billion.

Qualcomm is followed by Apple, Samsung, MediaTek and Broadcom. Apple had a 12 percent revenue share last year, while Samsung came in a close second, at 11 percent. MediaTek cashed in on low end parts, while Broadcom was helped along by its Samsung relationship.

Freescale, Marvell, Renesas and Texas Instruments were in the red last year, while ST Ericsson and Spreadtrum gained market share. Nvidia’s shipments remained flat, while Intel grabbed just 0.2 percent of the market.

“Qualcomm strongly participated in the high-end market in 2012 with its LTE Snapdragon processors and APQ series stand-alone processors,” analyst Sravan Kundojjala said. “Strategy Analytics believes that the year 2012 saw Qualcomm's rise as a high-end player in the smartphone applications processor market, thanks to its in-house CPU and graphics technologies. The new Snapdragon 600 and 800 chips will help Qualcomm move further ahead of the competition.”

Strategy analytics estimates that vertical vendors who design their own chips, such as Samsung and Apple, grabbed more than a quarter of the market last year. However, Qualcomm, MediaTek, Broadcom and Nvidia are poised for more growth.